Chubu borrows to pay for gas

25 August 2011

Chubu Electric Power Corp has signed a loan agreement totalling ¥100 billion ($1.3 billion) with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel its gas-fired power plants following the enforced shutdown of its Hamaoka nuclear power plant. In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, prime minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu in early May to shut down Hamaoka units 4 and 5, and not to restart unit 3 of the plant in Shizuoka prefecture until tsunami defences at the site have been strengthened. Hamaoka units 1 and 2 have already been permanently shut down. The company expects work to bolster the site's tsunami defences to be completed by December 2012. In June, Chubu secured an emergency loan of ¥100 billion from the Development Bank of Japan to support rising fuel costs following the shutdown of the plant.